I’ve always been ambivalent about Geronimo. Though he is widely celebrated today as a patriot and the last Apache holdout (not quite), the militant Chiricahua Apache shaman and war-band leader (never a chief) was widely reviled in his own day by his own people. He was truculent, dishonest, and a dangerous drunk. But there’s no question that he was … [Read more...] about Once He Moved Like The Wind
Pluggy Gets Plugged
The march of the American Republic from sea to shining sea seems inevitable in hindsight. It’s easy to lose sight of contingency in history; moments when the trail could have turned in a different direction. Had the First Nations people of the Ohio Country acted in concert when the American Revolution broke out in 1775, if the British had … [Read more...] about Pluggy Gets Plugged
Fantastical Landscapes
I was recently privileged to scroll through the multitude of photographs my friends Jack and Jan McGowan took on a recent, epic seven-week trek through the American Southwest. There will soon be a post on their excursion into Canyon de Chelly, the last stronghold of the Navajo Nation. Their description of the experience of the Carlsbad Caverns … [Read more...] about Fantastical Landscapes
Working The Trap Line — November 2019 — The Warrior Tradition
The big action for November, as far as I’m concerned is the November 11 airing of The Warrior Tradition on PBS. The Warrior Tradition tells the astonishing, heartbreaking, inspiring, and largely-untold story of Native Americans in the United States military. Why would Indian men and women put their lives on the line for the very government that … [Read more...] about Working The Trap Line — November 2019 — The Warrior Tradition
Ghoulies, Ghosties and Long-Leggedy Beasties
“From ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night, Good Lord deliver us.” — Scottish prayer Halloween is a most Celtic celebration. Ancient pagan Celts marked Samhain (pronounced sow-un) as the divide between the light of summer and the darkness of winter. In their belief, the veil between the … [Read more...] about Ghoulies, Ghosties and Long-Leggedy Beasties
American Frontiersman — African Dynasty
Charles Cottar was the quintessential American Frontiersman: Adventurous, independent, impatient of authority, entrepreneurial, and tougher than leather. In an earlier day, his epic family saga might have played out in the forests and meadows of Kaintuck, or in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains, or out on the Southwest borderlands. But the Cottar … [Read more...] about American Frontiersman — African Dynasty
Getting Spooked On La Frontera
Anybody who has spent some time out in the desert knows that it can be a spooky place, especially at night. The U.S.-Mexico Border, La Frontera, has always had a special weirdness of its own. After all, La Llorona still stalks the land... Rocky Elmore is a retired United States Border Patrol Agent who has, apparently, experienced weirdness … [Read more...] about Getting Spooked On La Frontera
Working The Trapline — October 2019
Frontier Partisans scout Fletcher Vredenburgh took himself a trip through the Mohawk Valley — and back in time — over the summer. His write up at his blog is an excellent summary of the brutal civil war on the New York frontier. And it makes me want to trek the Valley in the muggy heat of summer... * Stumbled across an independent TV … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — October 2019
‘A Wanderer In And Worshiper Of Beautiful and Unspoiled Country’ — Colonel Townsend Whelen – American Rifleman and Outdoorsman – Part II
By Rick Schwertfeger, Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command, Austin, Texas “There, lying on the muddy shore, was the largest crocodile I ever have seen. I placed my bullet at the junction of its skull and spinal column and it just quivered and lay still. It measured 14 feet, 2½ inches from the tip of snout to tip of tail.” U.S. … [Read more...] about ‘A Wanderer In And Worshiper Of Beautiful and Unspoiled Country’ — Colonel Townsend Whelen – American Rifleman and Outdoorsman – Part II
Horrid Sorcerers And Hellish Conjurers
The story of the prodigious war, made by the spirits of the invisible world upon the people of New-England, in the year 1692, hath entertain'd a great part of the English world with a just astonishment. And I have met with some strange things, not here to me mentioned, which have made me often think that this inexplicable war might have some of its … [Read more...] about Horrid Sorcerers And Hellish Conjurers
